USB Storage - deleting files

[Steven Davies-Morris]

Chris Jeffries wrote:
> I have a small MP4 player, which can attach as a USB mass storage 
> device.
> 
> On connecting, it shows up as media/disk
> 
> The following done in Nautilus
> 
> In order to make space, I deleted some files - which appeared to go
>  smoothly except it did not free up any space.
> 
> Googling for a solution, I discovered Ubuntu creates a hidden Trash
>  directory (.Trash-1000 in my case) on the storage device. So I
> tried deleting the files from there.
> 
> Intially it looked hopeful ('These files cannot be moved to trash,
> would you like to delete them permanently' (I am working from
> memory so these are approximately the words))
> 
> However, instead of actually deleting them, it DID move them to
> trash, I saw them before my very eyes disappear as I ask for them
> to be deleted, only to see them re-appear a moment later.
> 
> I then tried enabling the Delete option in Nautilus. But then I got
> a message that I was trying to delete from a read only device.
> 
> I tried the same thing in CLI both as myself and as root. I tried
> making the owner myself and root (at different times of course), I
> tried making the directory chmod 777, but it still insisted th
> device was read only.
> 
> The forums on Google suggested reformatting, but I also knew that I
> had never had this problem on Windows.
> 
> So I unplugged the device form my Ubuntu PC and plugged it into a 
> Windows one, where I was able to delete the Trash directory and
> recover the disk space.
> 
> I have now plugged it back into the Ubuntu PC and the problem seems
> to have gone away for the moment.
> 
> My question is this. Is this a known behaviour (I've not found
> anything definitive on it elsewhere) or does anyone have any idea
> what might be happening here, or where I should start to look for
> clues.
> 
> Please be gentle with me, I am still not that familiar with where
> to find things on a Linux set up.
> 
> Chris.

I have encountered this same problem loading my wife's MP3 player. It
was annoying until I figured out what was going on. I solved it by:

1) doing the deletes in Nautilus
2) opening the .trash folder as administrator
3) going into the two folders under .trash and deleting the associated
files found in both of them

Not elegant but it can be solved.
-- 
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